1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to extruded products and more particularly to processing a stream of product from an extruder to achieve a desired shape.
2. Description of the Related Art
Extruders are used in the preparation of various products, including food products such as ready-to-eat (“R-T-E”) cereals. Extruders such as cooker extruders can be desirable because a single machine can produce large quantities of a cooked dough in a short period of time. Such cooker extruders can be used to prepare cooked dough extrudates which can thereafter be formed into individual cereal or snack pieces. The formation of such pieces may involve puffing the pieces to form finished puffed R-T-E cereals. In another variation, the capabilities of the extruder and the characteristics of the cooked cereal dough are such that the dough puffs immediately upon being extruded and is cut into individual puffed pieces at the die head.